Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The UN's World Health Organization ponies up some $200 million a year for luxury travel, including first-class tickets and posh hotels – much more than it spends on combatting[sic] AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria, the AP has revealed.
According to internal files obtained by the news agency, since 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) has allocated $803 million for travel – approximately $200 million per year. The WHO's two-billion-dollar annual budget is made up of contributions made by 194 member countries, of which the US is the largest sponsor.
Last year, the WHO allocated just over $60 million to tackling malaria and $59 million to containing the spread of tuberculosis, while $71 million was spent on fighting AIDS and hepatitis. Programs aimed at containing certain diseases, such as polio, do get considerably larger funding, however, with $450 million allocated annually.
Though the organization has been struggling to achieve its goals, while at the same time appealing for more financing, its employees and top brass apparently do not shy away from booking first-class airline tickets and rooms in luxurious five-star hotels.
In particular, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and Executive Director Bruce Aylward are first and second on the list of the agency's top spenders, according to a confidential 25-page analysis of the WHO's expenses seen by AP.
Source: https://www.rt.com/news/389198-who-travel-costs-report/
Additional Coverage: U.S. News & World Report
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @10:22AM (1 child)
Exactly. And more importantly, their role is to provide a platform for COORDINATION of efforts. There is plenty of resources elsewhere that are used to get actual work done.
It would be like saying, "Debian spends tons of money on subsidizing conference travel costs, not on its distribution". Which would be true and massively misleading.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @04:36PM
And that pretty much sums up every single non-technical story submission from the mighty bumblefuck.
The guy even goes to great lengths to advertise just how out of touch he is by constantly submitting stories from RT.
When will the editors wise up?
Apparently never.